Thursday, 8 July 2010

Messrs. Peenko and Aye Tunes have been banging on about Kid Canaveral for quite a while now. At first, I thought "it'll just be another guy with a guitar". Then 'he' released a free single a while back called "Good Morning", which I downloaded but never got around to listening to. Guess who then goes and headlines the first Peenko vs. Aye Tunes night which I was otherwise engaged to go to? That's right, this Kid Canaveral 'chap'.

OK, so by that time I had at least done a bit of sleuthing and discovered 'he' was in fact, a 'they'. David, Scott, Rose and Kate to be exact. By this time I was knee deep in revision to pay them more than a fleeting interest. Last week though, after the sheer amount of great reviews and tweets regarding their debut album "Shouting At Wildlife", the peer pressure got too much and I succumbed to buying one of the special pre-order CDs (which incidentally can be bought here and come with some freebies including a cassette of their previous single and links to download the mp3s online).

We'll get to my thoughts on the album soon after some more rambling and even more coffee. First, it must be said that these days £12 for an album (plus postage mind you), especially from a relatively new-kid-on-the-block may be considered a tad steep. So, out of fear of disliking the album and cursing my foolishness for spending that on a band I'd yet to properly listen to, I decided to give the free streaming on their bandcamp site a miss, and instead wait patiently for my CD.

If anyone's still reading this half-review-half-ramble, then let me just say it popped through my letterbox yesterday and I finally got around to having a listen. So, what be the verdict?

/****** Review Starts Here ******/

Truth be told, it's very, very good... and incredibly infectious. It's by no means an album of twelve, sure-fire "Smash Hits". The majority of songs most definitely are though, or at least should be, like the one I shamelessly used in the previous sentence, and singles "Good Morning" and "You Only Went Out To Get Drunk Last Night".

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://kidcanaveral.bandcamp.com/track/you-only-went-out-to-get-drunk-last-night-2"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;You Only Went Out To Get Drunk Last Night by Kid Canaveral&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

My advice... get yourself the free download of "Good Morning", actually listen to it, then there's a good chance you'll be dancing yourself silly over here to listen to the rest of the album and place your order! £12 well spent and worth every penny!

6 comments:

I would have to disagree with you. I think a tenner is perfectly reasonable for an album. Admittedly I bought this from iTunes, but from the photos of the album and freebies then a tenner is a more than fair price. I just don't have any room for CDs these days.

People aren't willing to spend £10 on an album? Christ, no wonder the music insdustry is in a state. How much are these others willing to spend on an album? Is it not in shops, too? So people can avoid the cost of an envelope and postage?

In this day and age where music can be had for free online, be it illegally or in this case, streamed on bandcamp, there's always going to be people who'd choose not to take a £12 punt.

As for how much is a reasonable price, I don't know. All I do know is, for what was on offer here with regards to the quality of the music and the physical contents of the envelope I was sent, I'm a happy chappy.

James doesn't seem a happy chappy. If i'm allowed to give my two cents then i'm a fan of letting the listeners choose the price but with a reasonable lower limit. Runs into the problem of what is reasonable again though. As for this album i'll personally wait a while and buy it cheaper later. I don't consider that unreasonable.

I understand where both of you are coming from. My stance is right in the middle!

People are going to do what they want to do!

As I said in the post, try the free single. If that floats your boat then listen to the rest of the album on bandcamp, and if you like that, then I'd recommend buying the physical copy with all the extra trimmings.